My Blogging Story
Don’t Try This At Home is having a carnival on Blogging Stories and I thought I ought to participate. Technically, the carnival was yesterday, but I think I can still get in! 
If not, then you can still enjoy my blogging story.
How did you start blogging?
I only started to blog 3 months ago. That´s how old my first blog, At Home Mom is. I have two other blogs as well, Last Minute Cook and Expat Mom. I´ve had websites before, but the whole idea of a blog appealed to me because it is easier to update, plus it seemed like a good way to get my writing out there. And, I have to admit, I was drawn by the idea of earning money!
I started out with a Wordpress.com account, but I quickly realized that there are very few monetization opportunities on a free account, so I bought a domain name and switched to a $10 a year host. That didn´t work out, so then I switched to HostGator and that is where my blog is hosted right now!
Did you intend to be a blog with a big following? If so, how did you go about it?
I was certainly hoping that I would develop a big following. I haven´t gotten there yet. Everywhere I look, people say that 500 unique visitors per day is an average blog, so I guess I have a ways to go. But the truth is, I´m not impatient. I´m enjoying blogging and although I love to see my daily average rise, it isn´t as big a deal as I thought it would be!
My main techniques are as follows:
- Comment on tons of blogs, especially those with Do Follow.
- Participate in group writing projects
- Leave great comments on forums, with my URL in my profile
- Participate in the occasional meme
- Link to cool blogs, they get curious and come check me out!
- Submit my posts to StumbleUpon, blog carnivals, etc.
- Sign up for Technorati
What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?
I want to get big and famous! Well, not too famous. But I would like to reach the top 10,000 in Technorati and establish a solid presence in the blogoshere.
I haven´t really reached any goals yet. But I´m working on it. I am making a point of commenting on Do Follow blogs every couple of days to help build my Technorati rating. Basically, all the points I made in the last question . . . those are my plans to achieve my goals.
Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?
My focus hasn´t really changed. It has always been about providing quality, useful information for work at home moms. What has changed is how I go about it. I´m more interested in writing longer, in depth posts about business opps now. It took a while to get over the idea that all blog posts need to be 150-300 words long! Some of mine are three or four times that length!
What do you know now that you wish you´d known when you started?
That socializing and linky love is a good thing! I was too scared to do it at first. I was worried that people would come and hate on me for my blog content, but the truth is that so far all my comments are pretty friendly. I´m sure I´ll get some bad ones later on, but it is worth linking out and making contact with other bloggers, my traffic has skyrocketed since I started being more social!
Do you make money with your blog?
Not really. I just earned my first cash, $6.50 from SponsoredReviews.com, but apart from that, nada!
Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?
Well, my husband and one sister know about my blogs. I think my sister only reads it when I tell her to, but my husband doesn´t. He is Guatemalan, so English is a bit tough for him. He listens to my talking incessantly about blogging though and recently started his own blog in Spanish. Apparently, he is going to earn money before I do.lol.
What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?
1. Don´t be afraid to network. The other bloggers are really friendly, so get out there and start commenting.
2. Don´t use Microsoft Word to write your posts and then cut and paste into your blog. It makes for messed up HTML and it is really embarrassing when things happen because of your silly mistakes, like your sidebar disappearing for a month!
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Hi there,
Firstly, I wanna say thanks for visiting my site.
Neat site. I see that you just earned your first income. Don’t stop there. Slowly scale up.
Keep providing quality content. You are on the right track.
Anyway, if you really want earn good money, it is better to do micro-niche sites that are very narrowly focused.
Cheers,
Jag
Thanks for the encouragement! I´m the first to admit that this blog is not very focused, but for my first one, I didn´t want to go with a tight niche. Those will come later, once I have some experience. At the moment, I´m working more on writing what I love.
I think you have a great start! I have only been blogging since mid-November. Still have a lot to learn. I have been researching hosts for one of my blogs. Someone else mentioned HostGator as well. Good Luck with your goals.
Marcia, so far Host Gator has been great for me. I like that they allow me to pay by the month with PayPal, since I didn´t have enough money to pay by the year when I first started out.
If you´ve been blogging since November, you are twice as old in the blogosphere as I am! Good job.